WMO Report Reveals Accelerated Climate Change in Asia, Highlights Urgent Need for Action
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released its State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report, which highlights the rapidly increasing rate of climate change across multiple indicators in the region, such as surface temperature, glacier retreat, and sea level rise. The report underscores the severity of the issue and its profound impact on societies, economies, and human lives.
WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo emphasized the sobering conclusions of the report, noting that many Asian countries experienced record-breaking heat in 2023 alongside a series of extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves, floods, and storms. Saulo also highlighted that Asia is warming faster than the global average, with the region's warming trend almost doubling since the period from 1960-1990.
In 2023, the northwest Pacific Ocean recorded its highest sea-surface temperatures, with marine heatwaves affecting the Arctic Ocean and other parts of the region. The sea surface is warming more than three times faster than the global average in areas such as the Arabian Sea, the southern Kara Sea, and the southeastern Laptev Sea, with the Barents Sea being identified as a climate change hotspot.
Globally, sea level rise continued due to thermal expansion and melting glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheets. In Asia, rates were higher than the global average from 1993 to 2023. The region experienced 79 water hazard-related disasters in 2023, with over 80% linked to floods and storms, resulting in over 2,000 fatalities and affecting nine million people.
Extreme heat waves were prevalent across the region in 2023, with Asia's annual mean near-surface temperature ranking as the second-highest on record, 0.91 °C above the 1991-2020 average. Japan and Kazakhstan experienced record-high temperatures.
Precipitation levels varied across different parts of the region, with lower-than-normal rainfall observed in Turan Lowland, the Hindu Kush, and the Himalayas. Conversely, several extreme rainfall events occurred in Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Hong Kong.
The High-Mountain Asia region, which houses the largest volume of ice outside the polar regions, experienced significant glacier retreat and an accelerating rate of ice loss. Meanwhile, permafrost thaw was observed in parts of the Arctic, with the most rapid changes occurring in the Polar Urals and western regions of Western Siberia.
The WMO report also highlights other extreme weather events in the region, such as dust storms, lightning, extreme cold waves, and smog, which affected millions of lives. The report noted 3,612 disasters from 1970 to 2021 attributed to weather, climate, and water extremes, causing 984,263 deaths and $1.4 trillion in economic losses.
To mitigate the impacts of climate change, the WMO and its partners advocate for strong early warning systems and disaster risk reduction measures to save lives and prevent future economic crises exacerbated by climate change.
